How to get the path to the Android assets folder in the application package

Question

I have a whole folder structure that I want to copy from my assets folder. However, the mContext.getAssets().open() seems to only want a filename so that it can return an InputStream, which is only suitable for copying a single file. What I need is a File made from the folder in my assets folder so that I can recurse through all the files and folders and copy them all.

Does anybody know how to get the path to the assets folder so that I can create a File object?

Edit: After some study it appears that you can't access files in the assets/ and raw/ folders with absolute paths to be able to create a File object. It probably has to do with the encryption of the app package. I hope someone can prove me wrong though!

Final edit: I ended up creating an array of strings to hold the extra asset files:

 private static final String[] DEFAULT_ALBUM_FILES = {INTRO_TO_FLASHUM_DIR+"03 Never Can Say Goodbye.m4a", INTRO_TO_FLASHUM_DIR+"11 Bossa Baroque.m4a", INTRO_TO_FLASHUM_DIR+"intro fling.3gp"};

I then iterated through this copying each file individually using the mContext.getAssets().open() to get the InputStream. I don't think it is currently possible to iterate through a folder in the assets using normal File operations.

What have you tried? See: wiseandroid.com/post/2010/06/14/… — f20k
– f20k, Commented May 2, 2011 at 18:55

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:55:07Z

5

Could you move the folder to your /raw folder? Then you could use:

 com.your.package:raw/yourFile

Like this:

int resourceId = context.getResources().getIdentifier("com.your.package:raw/somefile.txt"); File f = new File(context.getResources().openRawResource(resourceId));

And here's someone doing it with the assets folder:

Android Assets with sub folders

 InputStream is = getAssets().open("subfolder/somefile.txt");

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:55

CommunityBot

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answered May 2, 2011 at 18:49

Blundell

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6 Comments

charles young Over a year ago

This looks promising. I'm going to give it a try. I'll get back with the results. Thanks!

charles young Over a year ago

The raw folder also does not appear to allow absolute path references. As least I have not been able to figure it out...

charles young Over a year ago

The problem is that openRawResource() returns an InputStream and there does not seem to be a way to convert the latter to a File. With your code I get the following error: The constructor File(InputStream) is undefined.

Blundell Over a year ago

Ah thats because I short-cut this answer :-) Once you have the IS, you then create your File and loop round the IS feeding it into the file. This might not be the best example: roseindia.net/java/java-conversion/InputstreamToFile.shtml but gives you a hint

charles young Over a year ago

Thanks for your help. I am aware of this technique to convert an IS to a File. However, how do I get the File that correspondes to a folder in the assets folder? From there I wish to do a file.listFiles() to get the contents of that folder and iterate through it to copy the individual files. As it is, I have to know the contents of that folder and copy the files individually.

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Philipp Hofmann · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-04 09:34:34Z

5

AssetManager am = con.getAssets();//u have get assets path from this code InputStream inputStream = null; inputStream = am.open("file.xml");

or

String file_name="ur.xml" inputStream = am.open("foldername/"+ur);

edited Dec 4, 2020 at 9:34

Philipp Hofmann

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answered Mar 14, 2013 at 11:36

duggu

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2 Comments

SergeyYu Over a year ago

Hi, is there way to get a file's path from InputStream object?

NightFuryLxD Over a year ago

@SergeyYu, I too, have the same question. So far, I've not been able get the path from the stream. Is this solved?

yogsma · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-02 20:17:28Z

-3

Use file:///android_asset for accessing the asset folder and then you can always give your subfolder there.

AssetManager assetManager = null; // null ??? Get the AssetManager here. AssetFileDescriptor assetFileDescriptor = null; try{ assetFileDescriptor = assetManager.openFd("file:///android_asset/yourfolder/file"); FileDescriptor fd = assetFileDescriptor.getFileDescriptor(); } catch (Exception e){}

edited May 2, 2011 at 20:17

answered May 2, 2011 at 18:59

yogsma

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4 Comments

charles young Over a year ago

I am afraid I don't understand how to use "file:///android_asset". Can you put this in the form of "File file = new File(...);"?

yogsma Over a year ago

Get the assetmanager, get the assetfiledescriptor , get the filedescriptor from assetfiledescriptor.

charles young Over a year ago

But then how do you convert a FileDescriptor to a File?

Kyle Clegg Over a year ago

David - did you get an answer to this? if yes, please post. ty.

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